A New Champ
by Dan Amsterdam
Summary: An alternative universe where Shawn Stasiak won the WCW World Title during the InVasion.
1. Chapter 1

None of the characters, events, areas, moves or objects mentioned in this story are owned by that of this author.

It was a dark and stormy night. The date was September 13, 2001. After recent events a nation was understandedly feeling unrest and uncertainty. For Vince McMahon, he felt that what had recently happened were meant as attacks of oppression, and thus his company wouldstand up for America and air a special live edition of the previously cancelled Smackdown from two days ago. Many in the WWF knew that there would be a long road of healing ahead and knew it had to be done.

In one particular segment that night, WCW World Champion The Rock came out to say something. "The Rock isn't feeling too good right now." said The Rock. "But The Rock is gonna do it for the People! The Rock is issuing an open challenge for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Any 'a you want this backstage, get your ass out here!"

A few seconds passed. Then, Shawn Stasiak's music and TitanTron appeared. These both suggested that Shawn Stasiak was coming out, and he in fact did so. A fan in the audience jokingly yelled, "Oh you've really screwed yourself now Rock!"

"I accept your challenge Rock!" yelled Stasiak. He ran into the ring and charged at The Rock. The Rock swerved to the left to avoid Stasiak's charge, expecting him to crash into the turnbuckle and render himself unconscious as he had been doing a lot lately. But in a split-second, Stasiak stretched out his left arm. The Rock was taken out by a Lariet. Stasiak managed to slow down soon enough to avoid the turnbuckle. He quickly turned around and covered The Rock. The referee counted ONE...TWO...THREE!

And just like that, Shawn Stasiak was the new WCW Heavyweight Champion.

At first, the crowd was stunned by what they just saw. Then they were enraged. While they would not be able to accept this happening any other week, it was its occurance on this imfamous week that enhanced their frustration and dismay. A near-deafening chrous of boos filled the arena. That one heckling fan regained his composure and and yelled out "See, what did I tell ya?"

The cameras cut to the Alliance locker room, where the faction watched backstage the events in the ring happen on thier television. None of them knew what to make of it. The WCW Championship may have returned to them, but was this way they wanted it? 


	2. A Plan Set In Motion

The date was September 15, 2001. Jakked was on. Whether viewers tuned in to recieve more details on the fallout of Shawn Stasiak winning the WCW Championshop or to see matches featuring underappreciated midcard workers, they were sure to be given both.

After the second commercial break, there was replay of the fated events that Thursday. With that recap established, the announcers spoke of footage from the Alliance locker room following that match.

Viewers witnessed as Stasiak returned to the locker room recieving praise from most of the Alliance, many half-hearted due to their bewilderment over what just happened. Meanwhile Shane McMahon was wandering back and forth, listening to a voice on his cell phone. "Alright, fine." Shane hung up and walked up to the new champion. "We need to talk."

"So what's there to talk about boss, I beat The Rock fair and square, and if he wants his rematch then obviously I'll beat him again!" Shane shook his head. "Shawn, as you might recall, me and Booker T were supposed to be facing Rock for this title at Unforgiven. This belt belonged to Booker, not you."

Shawn thought things over for a moment. "Alright, so you guys get your match changed to a #1 Contender's Match. We'll get Rocky shoved out of the picture for good!" Shane got it Shawn's face. "The belt is still on the line Sunday. I just got word from Commissioner Foley that the match has been changed to a Fatal-Four Way. You, me, Booker and Rock. So here's the deal. You make sure that whatever happens Sunday Booker walks out with the title." And with that, Shane left the room.

Shawn just shrugged. "Fine, better him than you." 


	3. Forgiveness Not

The date was September 16, 2001. It was still a period of uncertainty even after earlier when it was confirmed the remains of Osama Bin Ladin had been found in the wreckage of one of his attacks on America. No one was quite sure what to make of anything anymore. For the moment though, Unforgiven was happening tonight, and that meant Shawn Stasiak would be defending his WCW Championship against The Rock, Booker T and Shane McMahon.

The Rock came out first, followed by Booker T's entrance. However once both men were in the ring an immediate brawl broke out. Shane forgoed his usual entrance, instead running over to the ring to attempt to pummel Rock. The champion Stasiak came out with his usual entrance mannerisms, letting the chaos in the ring continue as it were.

Shawn climbed up one of the turnbuckles and attempted a Top Rope Splash on Rock. He ended up hitting Shane in the back with his leg and only lightly hitting Rock on the shoulder with his chest. Booker continued working over Rock with a series of hard chops. Following that, he took down Rock with a Vertical Suplex. As Rock struggled to get back up, Booker saw his opportunity for his Scissors Sweep. At that same time, Stasiak got up and saw a good DDT opportunity. Thus Stasiak gave Rock the DDT, causing Booker to hit only his legs.

"That was my spot dumbass, you better not screw that up again!" yelled Booker. For the moment, Booker and Stasiak would continue with weakening Rock. Shane got up and told his Alliance partners that he was going to go for his cross-turnbuckle dropkick attack. As Rock was thrown into the turnbuckle, Stasiak decided that Rock needed to be roughed up a bit more and kicked him. This resulted in Shawn getting hit by Shane's leap and being spared from the attack.

This gave Rock a window for a comeback and so he got the upper hand on Booker and Shane. With a double clotheslines he sent both his currently stadning opponents out of the ring. Rock lunged at them from outside with a Double Axe Handle and soon the brawl resumed on the entrance ramp.

Stasiak came back to some seconds later. "Six!" The referee was counting down the other three competitors as their brawl had found its way up to the entrance stage. "Seven!" Stasiak managed to get back up to his feet. "Eight!" Stasiak called out "Hey guys, get back in here!" "Nine!" With that Booker and Rock hurried their way back to the ring. The Rock was inches away from sliding into the ring. "Ten!"

But it was too late. All the other three competitors was disqualified by countout. Shawn Stasiak remained the WCW Champion. Stasiak was as surpised as anyone else. All he could do now was shrug. So he shrugged. 


	4. The Third Champ

The date was September 17, 2001. That the Alliance's plan to return the World Heavyweight Championship to whom they felt was the champion failed miserably did nothing to improve the already low morale in the Alliance. Tonight on this very Raw things managed to get worse for the rebel faction.

For the fourth match of the night Shawn Stasiak would defend his title against Scotty 2 Hotty. Scotty defeated Stasiak last Monday in a match taped to air on Jakked. As the match was aired on Saturday when Stasiak was now champion, the Board of Directors decided that Scotty would be given a shot at his title.

Stasiak had just retained the title after a six minute match with a DDT. After the match ended, Stephanie McMahon came out. "Shawn Stasiak, we are really getting fed up having to be represented by a numbskulled champion who's only gotten to where he is by a string of fluke victories!" Stephanie yelled. "Therefore, ECW will be disbanding from the Alliance as of this moment. Now, let me show you a real champion."

Rhyno's music and entrance video immediately followed. While the United States champion as of Unforgiven, Rhyno now was also carrying the ECW World Championship again. "And to prove to the world that Rhyno is the greatest world champion. we challenge our rivals to a Champion Vs. Champion Vs. Champion match at No Mercy! Rhyno versus Shawn Stasiak, or we're lucky enough, a more credible World Heavyweight Champion by No Mercy, versus Kurt Angle." Finishing her announcement, Stephanie sent Rhyno over to the ring to take out Stasiak. Rhyno roughed Stasiak up a bit then prepared to finish him off with the Gore. However, Stasiak noticed that Scotty 2 Hotty was getting back up on his feet so Stasiak used him as a human shield. Scotty took half of the Gore's impact, while the other half knocked Stasiak out of the ring.

It was then that Kurt Angle and Team WWF came out through the audience, to acknowledge they would accept the No Mercy challenge and to help their fallen comrade. Stephanie sent the rest of Team ECW out to help Rhyno. A massive brawl erupted, with both teams taking down the others. In the end, only two men were standing, Kurt Angle in the ring and Rhyno on the entrance. A staredown comminced between the two champions. The third champion Shawn Stasiak looked around and realized that no one from Team WCW came down in his defense. Stasiak was sad. 


	5. The Next Best Thing

Shawn Stasiak had not been seen much on WWF television after the WWF/ECW brawl. Feeling betrayed by just about everyone, Shawn only showed up when he was put in matches, rarely had the spirit to try to even win the matches, and had not spoken a single word of promo or interview.

The Tuesday before No Mercy, however Shawn resurfaced in Ohio Valley Wrestling, currently a developmental promotion for future WWF stars. During a match between Shelton Benjamin and Ron Waterman, the announcers suddenly noticed Shawn standing in the back of the audience. Slowly throughout the match Shawn creeped closer and closer over to the crowd barrier. He arrived at this destination twenty after the match just ended. With the ring free, Shawn jumped the barrier, grabbed a mic and climbed into the ring.

"Alright, all you guys here in OVW listen up for a second," Shawn began. "As you know WWF got about 30-40 new guys, including me, kinda sorta, sorta kinda, for the InVasion angle. That doesn't sound good for the odds of you guys backstage getting called up to the big daddy any time soon." The crowd booed. "Well I came here to tell you it doesn't have to be that way! We can just go and start another InVasion, another Alliance, we can bring war to the McMahons and tell them we are not gonna be ignored!" This got the crowd excited.

Suddenly, the entrance music of OVW Champion The Machine filled the arena, and out came The Machine. He entered the ring. "Now wait a second, now this proposal you have sounds tempting, but you really think we're going to want to follow you?" Shawn stood there a second, then nodded toward his WCW Champion belt, reminding OVW that this belt still held plenty of clout, and as its holder Shawn could get these guys into the WWF. "Oh, what the hell, might as well take the opportunity while it's here."

The two champions shook hands, and a fourth faction was born. 


	6. Merciless

And thus the day came in which No Mercy would be held. Shawn Stasiak waited with minimal pateince as match by match went by and the main event drew closer. Throughout the program Shawn was attacked by WCW, WWF and ECW members, which his OVW cohorts responded in kind by attacking Kurt Angle and Rhyno. When the time finally came for the triple-threat finale, all three men had been significantly beaten up, evening each other's chances of winning.

All three competitors came out with backup, highly suspecting the other factions to pull some other tricks. As a result it was quickly announced that the match would modified as a lumberjack match. Members of WCW, though not having much in the way of stake in the matchup, joined along the lumberjacks. And finally, the bell rang.

Shawn and Rhyno immediately attempted grappling each other, only for Kurt to shove both men over. Rhyno leapt back up only to greeted with a clothesline by Angle. Shawn punched Angle in the knee. Angle elbowed him on the head. Angle then went for a headlock but Rhyno pulled him off and tossed him over the ropes. As Angle was preoccupied with the lumberjacks, Shawn and Rhyno brawled. Their brawl soon got close enough to the ropes, and Kanyon jabbed Shawn in the chin with a chair. Rhyno dragged Shawn to the middle of the ring, cautiously manuevered himself to the corner to setup for the Gore, but got yanked out of the ring by Bradshaw anyway. Then after the referee began paying more attention to the two competitiors battling outside the ring instead of the downed Stasiak, Mike Awesome stuck in and pulled Shawn out of the ring behind the ref's back.

Mass chaos ensued at ringside as soon the lumberjacks began to concern themselves less about the three individuals in the match and more about taking out all their opposition. Brawling found its way into the audience, over to the entrance and even backstage. Wrestlers were being slammed through announcers tables, hurled into parts of the entrance stage and tossed into dumpsters. Evantually Kurt Angle came back to his senses and headed back to the ring. He picked up Stasiak, who had been laying at ringside for minutes now, and threw him back in the ring. Angle went for the pin, but Shawn managed to kick out just before the 3. Meanwhile Rhyno realized he had to get back to the ring. He hijacked a forklift to keep any other attackers out of his way, and drove back to the stage.

Shawn had managed to avoid most of Angle's attacks by the time Rhyno got back to the match. Angle whipped Stasiak into Rhyno, almost knocking him off the ropes. Angle brought Rhyno into the ring via DDT, followed by an Angle Slam and an Angle Lock. Rhyno broke out of the lock, but Angle simply rolled over to Stasiak, applied another Lock and Stasiak tapped out immediately. And that was how the match ended.

Later, Shawn ran into Angle backstage. Swallowing his pride, Shawn extended his hand to Angle. "Hey good job buddy. That was a helluva."

"Yeah, that it was. Anyway I just got word from Vince McMahon there's gonna be a title unification match tommorrow. Being that I was the winner directly over you, I get a shot at that WCW title tommorrow."

"Oh."

"Crap." 


	7. Survive This Night

SURVIVE THIS NIGHT

Shawn Stasiak felt like this was the biggest night in his career. Well unless he were to make it to WrestleMania in four months (or Starrcade next month if Team WCW go over, he forgot but planned to ask the bookers later). His match, Team OVW's match, was scheduled at 9:00. Then at some point 9:00 came. Stasiak was ready.

Team OVW did not come out to the warmest of receptions, or interest for that matter. The fans seemed to view them as some random jobber team the other teams could kick around in their free time. Given also the fact that none of the OVW roster appeared at Survivor Series, much less challenge and win titles that would help them keep their jobs, there seemed like no reason to care for the OVW side. Stasiak knew his team had a lot to prove this night.

And in some respects, Team OVW was doing meagerly successful, much due to the efforts of the Minnesota Stretching Crew. Brock Lesnar eliminated Shane McMahon and Diamond Dallas Page, but was taken out by Rhyno. Shelton Benjamin impressively took Kanyon out of the match but soon after took a Stone Cold Stunner followed by a 3-count. Shawn Stasiak was the guy every other team treated as a joke. They beat him up then Irish Whipped him into his team's corner, figuring they can and will eliminate him any time they pleased.

Soon Stasiak found himself the only member left on his team. The final three were Stasiak, Mike Awesome of Team ECW and Stone Cold Steve Austin of Team WCW. It looked liked Austin was about to spell Stasiak's end, but team Kurt Angle ran in with a WWF T-shirt and a pipe and proceeded to attack his partner of few minutes ago. Awesome took over, delivered a brutal Awesome Bomb to Austin, and 1-2-3 he sent Austin out of the match.

Now it was down to Stasiak and Awesome. Now the fans realized this was the end for WWF (or for a while anyway). Vince McMahon was shown backstage sobbing on the ground. Shane was having a temper tautrum and started wailing on security guards in the parking lot. Jim Ross was so angry he ripped his hat, then just became depressed.

By that time, Stasiak had gotten his fourth wind. As Awesome picked him up, he delievered a few jabs to ward him off, followed by a knee to the head, a slingshot from the ropes and dropkick. Stasiak saw his opportunity to win this match once and for all! As Awesome laid on the ground, Stasiak ran over to the rope and did a Senton Splash (may have been intended as a Liontamer, only there was no flip). 1. 2. 3. Stasiak had done it. Or at least he thought until a split second after the bell rang that his shoulders were ago touching the mat.

The crowd was silent. This meant technically as no team won the match, no team would take over/resume control of the WWF and thus all four factions are banished. It did also occur that the champions got to stay, so at least they know there would be about nine guys for Raw or whatever it would be called now tomorrow.

As for Stasiak, all he could do is just sit there and think. He sat in the ring for half an hour until ring crew told him to leave. 


	8. AftErmath

It was a dark and stormy night. The date was November 19, 2001. After recent events wrestling fans

were hopefully feeling unrest and uncertainty. In Charlotte, North Carolina, fans attending what used to

be WWF Raw discovered the promotion was now being referred to as World Wrestling Entertainment

and its logo was missing the F part.

When the show began fans were surprised to see the return of Ric Flair. "Woooooooo!" said Flair, "could

those guys screw up thing any more or what?" The crowd reacted. "Alright, here's the lowdown: the

World Wrestling Federation is no more! World Championship Wrestling, it ain't coming back! ECW and

OVW, good riddance to them! They're all dead, all of them killed each other in one night. And now,

standing over their festering corpses, I present to you the WWE! This is a new era, an era of Ruthless

Aggression..."

-

Meanwhile, during a Combat Zone Wrestling show, CZW World Champion Justice Pain came out to say

something. "I'm feelin' pretty good tonight." said Pain. "Hell, I feel like I could take on the whole world!

So what I'm gonna do is issuing an open challenge for the CZW World Heavyweight Championship. Any

'a you want this backstage, get out here and show your sorry face!"

And then out came Shawn Stasiak in an XPW T-Shirt. "Alright, I'll take your challenge."

THE END


End file.
